TODAY, TOMORROW’S YESTERDAY.

I  watched as the rain washed a chunk of rubbish into the various gutters along the roads in Assin Fosu, a town in the central region. In fact, I was saddened by the scene. How on earth would someone eat from a rubber and drop the rubber anywhere he or she is sitting or standing? People sit in their stores, buy food, eat them from rubbers and throw the rubbers into the gutters in front of them. How is it that we dirty our environment without even considering the consequences of it?

Do we ever realise that the numerous diseases ranging from malaria to typhoid we suffer from on a daily basis is as a result of the way a manner we dirty  our environment? We blame Assembly members, Zoomlion, Town Council and the various agencies who are supposed to be in charge of helping keep our communities clean for shirking responsibilities and letting us to stay in filth. Have we ever sat back and thought of our own actions and inactions that render the environment dirty? We do all kinds of things to dirty our environment and expect someone to come and clean it for us just because we think its their job to do so.

People throw satche rubbers on the floor five feet away from a dustbin. How should this be happening? Is it because you think someone should clean the environment or you’re just a dubious person holding this country to a stagnated growth? Some parents even send their children to dump rubbish in gutters constructed to help water flow to prevent flood and then when their communities get flooded, they call government to come to their aid. Really? The country Ghana is tired of such actions. We hold too many double standards and it is costing us our progress. As a parent you're teaching your kid that it is a good thing to throw rubbish into gutters? Shame on you!!

As a shopkeeper, even if there is no Zoomlion container in your area, can’t you get a small dustbin to keep your rubbish in and after a day’s work, you dump it at a dump site?  Instead of throwing rubbish around because the government didn’t provide dustbins in your area, you can contribute your quota to Ghana’s growth by getting a dustbin and by so doing keeps the environment clean. As a trader,why should you dirty your environment and sit to sell in the same place? Don’t you realise you’re spreading diseases instead of good health?

You cost the country several millions of cedis just by throwing that rubber in your hand on the floor. You know why? You may think its only one but the rain will carry several of such rubbish into our gutters, get the gutters chocked, hence your communities will get flooded, then the National Disaster Management Organization, NADMO, comes to your aid with money that could have been used to do something else had it not been for your misbehaviour.

We can do better as a people. We blame people unnecessarily. We cause problems and expect others to solve them for us. Do we ever do a retrospection of ourselves?

NO MATTER HOW FUNCTIONING A GOVERNMENT IS, IF THE MASSES WHO FORM A MAJORITY OF THE VERY GOVERNMENT AREN’T SUPPORTIVE AND OPTIMISTIC, THE COUNTRY WILL NEVER PROGRESS.   Let's join hands in an assertive manner to move our country forward. Remember, no more effort is required to aim high in life, to demand abundance and prosperity, than is required to accept misery and poverty.

                                  YUSSIF SCRIBES.